


Sweet like Pumpkin Spice

by callmecaramleh



Series: sweet like series [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Baristas, Coffee Shops, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 17:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5213774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmecaramleh/pseuds/callmecaramleh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanaka has just found out that his best friends are dating. Hinata has realized that his boyfriend was never his boyfriend. They're kind of a mess but they're cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my Tanahina barista au! It's part of my sweet like series so I really suggest starting on Sweet like Caramel first, but as far as Sweet like Sugar and Sweet like Pumpkin Spice I'm going to try to weave them together so that they're really fun to read at the same time? Even so, you won't have to read the other two to enjoy this one! I really hope you do enjoy it...

The majority of the time Ryuu loved living with his sister. She cooked real food, so he didn’t have to live off ramen and the garbage that the dining halls produced, she paid 75% of the rent since she could afford it and she knew he couldn’t, and she always tried to be really considerate of his schedule. Saeko was careful to plan all of her dates and date-like activities for when Tanaka was working or hanging out with Nishinoya. If a boy did manage to have her good favor to stay the whole night, he’d be locked away in her room until Tanaka left for the morning, so he would be none the wiser. 

He was quite surprised, therefore, when he received a call from her after he left the library around six o’clock, excited to get back and eat some proper dinner with her.

“Hey,” she said, “Place is kind of occupied right now. Can you stay on campus with Nishinoya or someone? Sorry this is so spur of the moment, but trust me, if you saw this guy you’d understand.”

“Yeah sure sis, no problem,” he said, his stomach the only one grumbling in complaint. Things like this never really made Tanaka that upset, mostly because it just meant that later when he needed a favor he could just bring up that she owed him.

Tanaka turned on his heel as he tucked his phone into the pocket of his joggers, spinning away from the bike rack and towards Nishinoya’s dorm. He was able to saunter past the front desk and up the stairs to the third floor, the clerk not bothering to ask for an id. Tanaka was around so much that most people thought he lived here. In the hours between work and classes he would almost always be sitting on the end of Nishinoya’s bed, using his Hisoka body pillow as a back rest, pretending to do homework as they laughed to loud and teased poor Yamaguchi. Nishinoya practically had an open door policy when it came to his best friend.

Tanaka knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again. “Nishinoya, it’s me.”

“Coming!” Nishinoya squeaked. When he opened the door, he only opened it a crack, hiding behind it somewhat. His hair looked unkempt, sticking sideways and downwards and all directions, and he wasn’t wearing his shirt.

“Hey,” Tanaka said, punctuating his greeting with the raise of his eyebrow.

“Hi, um, Asahi is kind of here to visit and we’re kind of, um, you know, well we’re busy right now, but we can hang out in like, I don’t know, like two hours?” Nishinoya said, his head turning to glance back into the room every third word or so.

“Oh… Right, yeah sure,” Tanaka said, laughing awkwardly as he rubbed at the bristles of hair on the back of his neck, “I’ll just… come back then?”

“Yeah, ok,” said Nishinoya with sufficient awkwardness, “See you later.”

“Don’t forget to put Hisoka away,” he suggested as he turned to leave.

“Ah! Right, thanks!” Noya said as he closed the door.

Tanaka made his way down the poster covered hallway feeling itchy underneath his skin. He should have known, really, that Nishinoya and Asahi were together. It was always so clear, the way Asahi only ever stayed with Nishinoya when he came to visit, or the way Nishinoya would sometimes lean into Asahi without either of them actually noticing the skinship. It wasn’t so weird to him that his best friends were dating, but he was kind of unsettled that they had never said it.

What was the problem? Did they just sort of assume that he had known? Nishinoya didn’t seem freaked out when he insinuated what was going on, not like he would have had he been keeping it a secret. Sure, he seemed a bit on edge, but Tanaka figured that that was just because he wanted to get back to his current activity.

Or maybe they weren’t dating. Maybe it was just one of those complicated relationships where both of them were being idiots and saying they didn’t want to make anything serious out of it, even though they probably were both madly in love with each other judging by the long distances Asahi was willing to drive just to see Nishinoya. 

The worst idea Tanaka had as he headed down the stairs was that maybe they were afraid that Tanaka wouldn’t like them being together. What if they were afraid of him being homophobic? It’s not like the issue had ever just come up in conversation before. None of them were walking around with rainbow flags or joining the campus LGBTQA+ group. Maybe his vibe was so overtly heterosexual that they had been afraid to say anything.

Caught up in his revelation, he hardly noticed the lump of orange hair sitting at the end of one of the steps, and was just barely able to sidestep the boy. He was squatting with his feet firmly on the ground, his head in his hands.

“Something the matter?” Tanaka asked. The boy looked familiar, though just about everyone on campus looked familiar when you were a barista. You learned people by orders rather than names. This kid was… ah yes, Tanaka remembered, he was a regular Pumpkin Spice latte, extra pumpkin.

“Yes,” the boy groaned again, looking up to face Tanaka. His eyes were wide, though they looked to be that way naturally.

“Want to tell me about it?” Tanaka asked, sitting on the step next to him.

“…Can you keep a secret?”

“Of course,” Tanaka answered. That is, if keeping a secret meant only telling Nishinoya who would only tell Asahi who would actually tell no one.

“I thought my roommate and I were dating but we’re not and not only am I a totally idiot but I’m an asshole idiot. Like I’m the worst person on the face of the planet and I need to be wiped from existence.”

“Oh… uh… Well I doubt that’s really true… And communication is really difficult sometimes. Really I think the fact that you’ve trapped yourself in a sad gross stairwell probably isn’t the best thing for you,” Tanaka pointed out, standing up and taking the kid’s hand “Let’s go get some coffee and make you feel better."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, sorry to leave this so short. I'm doing nanowrimo this month and this was sort of my fun easy break writing. Hopefully the rest of the fic won't read so rushed.... Anyhow, can't wait until I get to start updating these fics regularly. If there's anything that Nanowrimo has shown me it's that I really do have time to write so maybe I'll be able to get a real schedule going for these fics.
> 
> Anyway, comments, suggestions, requests are all really welcome! And feel free to message me over on tumblr @ sad-olive-girl  
> I'm always really happy to hear from people who have read my fics so don't be a stranger.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really bad at updating fics i'm a disaster. I think this fic intimidates me the most of my current in progress fics because there's not a lot of tanahina fics so I want to make sure to give tanahina shippers something that they'll really like! so I hope you're really happy with how this fic goes.

Even with his mopey looks, Pumpkin Spice Latte still seemed to be the ball of energy that Tanaka always saw him being when he visited the cafe. Sure, a lot of that energy was going into pulling at his orange hair or pulling at his t-shirt, but Tanaka took it as a good sign that he wasn't drained of energy.  
"Heeey Tsukishima," Tanaka said when they reached the front of the line, "Since when were you working Thursdays?"

"Since Yamaguchi told me he was usually free on Sundays," Tsukishima answered. There was a lot of things that Tsukishima felt he was too cool to talk about, and Tanaka was glad to know that caring for his boyfriend wasn't going to be one of them.

"Makes sense. Anyway, can I get a regular pumpkin spice, extra pumpkin and, like, a mountain of whipped cream for this guy, and then all of the hot chocolate for me?"

"All of the hot chocolate? I don't 'all' is really a size."

"The largest cup you can find then."

"...So a large."

"I mean, if that's the best you can do," Tanaka answered with an exaggerated sigh. 

He paid for the drinks and pulled Pumpkin Spice over to one of the tables by the windows, hoping that the remaining sunshine might cheer him up a bit. 

"Ahh, that guy was in my freshman orientation class. He's terrifying," the kid said as he pulled his feet up onto the chair. 

"Yeah, he's kind of a dick but he's such a dork at heart that you can kind of start to like him when you get to know him."

"Right..."

Tanaka watched his fingers tap against the table, and the way his head bounced from the counter, waiting for their drinks, to the window to follow after the the birds sidling up and down the sidewalk. He reminded Tanaka of a Vincent Van Gogh painting, the way he could appear still and in motion at the same time, not to mention the glow that seemed to come off his hair. 

"I'm Tanaka by the way."

"Awh, well it's nice to talk to you outside of you taking my order Tanaka! I'm Hinata... I don't know if you knew that since the name goes on the cup so maybe I'm being stupid in introducing myself but it'd be weird if I didn't, right?"

"Oh I'm terrible with names," Tanaka replied, "I can remember what people order, but it's Daichi that's good with the whole name thing, that charming bastard."

Hinata laughed, then jumped out of his seat without a word to collect their drinks before they could even be set on the counter. His tongue slipped out of his mouth in concentration as he wrestled the cardboard cozies out of their container. With a grin of victory and the two drinks as his trophy, Hinata made his way back to the table. 

"Thanks again for the drinks," he said, handing Tanaka his hot chocolate, "I owe you one."

"Oh it's not big deal. I get an employee discount anyway."

"Still... It's nice. You didn't have to do anything for me really, so I appreciate it. Free pumpkin spice makes any bad day a little less bad..."

"Yeah, I can't imagine how terrible it'd be to find out your romantic conquests weren't actually conquests," Tanaka answered, hoping to give Hinata the chance to vent his feelings. He wanted him to feel better, and maybe also he wanted to not have his mind focusing on the fact that his best friends were currently banging in a bed that he spends so much time on. 

Hinata groaned, taking a big gulp of his latte and cringing when it burned his tongue. "It's not even that," he replied, "It's that I was so stupid about the whole situation."

He proceeded to tell Tanaka all about his roommate. About how he didn't like them much when they first moved in together. How they fought and how their music tastes were too different. How neither of them ever did the dishes because they always insisted that it was the other person's turn. Eventually, however, Hinata had found himself getting used to having his roommate, Kageyama, around all the time. Kageyama was the kind of person he liked to watch movies with, and he made homework a little more bearable. So when the winter had started setting in and he saw Kageyama putting on chapstick, the thought of "those lips look really kissable" didn't surprise him so much. Ever since he was little, Hinata had had a "type", and that type could be described as his best friend. The looks didn't matter, nor the personality really. All he cared about was if the person was the kind of person that he could depend on to be there for him, and Kageyama was starting to fit that requirement.

So he asked him to go play volleyball with him. To get dinner off campus with him. To go see the new Star Wars with him. All of this amounted to dating in Hinata's eyes, or at least almost dating. He knew Kageyama wasn't his boyfriend or anything, but with the amount of flirting Hinata attempted, he was sure that their relationship was something above friendship.

"The worst thing happened today," Kageyama had told Hinata earlier that day after getting back from his comp class, "The girl that sits next to me, you know the one that helps me revise essays? Well she asked me to get coffee and it was super awkward because I had to tell her no and now how am I supposed to ask her for help? It's going to be so awkward now and I'm going to fail the class or have to go to the writing center. But Oikawa works at the writing center and I don't want him to know that I have to go to the writing center, you know?"

Hinata's mind was racing. It was plausible that Kageyama turned the girl down just because he was gay, but that couldn't stop the hope from blooming in his mind. Maybe Kageyama wanted to be exclusive. Maybe they would be boyfriends.

"That's terrible," Hinata had answered, trying to hide a smile.

"Right? Like, I thought my ace vibe was pretty clear. I mean, anyone with any personality can be asexual and everything, but I just kind of thought I'm obvious about it, you know?"

He couldn't quite remember what happened after that. Probably he just gave some monosyllabic before finding a lame excuse to leave. Hinata felt so _stupid_. If this girl who had one class with Kageyama was supposed to pick up on the fact that Kageyama wasn't interested in a romantic relationship, then how much easier should it have been for Hinata? He lived with Kageyama, they'd seen each other change clothes and he had watched him react to dumb rom coms. How could he think they were dating when it was so evident that Kageyama wasn't interested in anything like that? How arrogant did Hinata have to be to assume that Kageyama liked him?

"So that's why I was crying on the staircase. I orginally was going to go talk to my friend Yachi about it, but then I got too embarrassed and I didn't know what to do."

"I see," Tanaka answered, stroking his not existent chin hairs, "Well, I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much. I mean, it'll be a funny story sometime in the future. And it's not totally your fault."

"But I just... homonormized him or something."

Tanaka laughed. Hinata certainly had a way with words unlike anyone else that Tanaka knew.

"I wouldn't say that. You have a crush on him. That's not such a crime, right? I mean, if you thought you were dating then you should be more clear about things, but it's not like you were purposefully ignoring the fact that he wouldn't be interested in something like that. When you like someone, you want them to like you back, right? Your brain is going to do whatever it can to convince you that there's hope of them liking you back, so if you didn't pick up on some 'vibe' or whatever, it's not your fault. I mean, he didn't pick up on your dating vibe. So really what I'm saying is that you have to talk to each other."

"But I'm never going to be able to talk to him ever again because I'm full of shame and embarrassment and my tongue is burnt."

"If it helps," Tanaka answered, "Tsukishima yelled at this guy that he liked and was so embarrassed about it, but he got over it and talked to him so now they're dating. Any relationship can be mended. Or Daichi, just the other day, found out that he got too drunk at a party and his crush found him naked and now he has to go to class with this guy twice a week, but he does it despite how terrible it might be, and the guy doesn't even seem to mind that much. Or, I mean, I just discovered my two best friends are in some sort of dating situation and they hadn't told me, but now I have to hang out with them in two hours and be the awkward third wheel. Maybe I was always the awkward third wheel, but I'll be much more aware of it now."

"I could come with you!" Hinata exclaimed, "Because then I don't have to go back to my dorm yet and you don't have to be awkward alone with them. That way you can at least get used to them dating while you have someone there with you."

"Hinata, I think you might actually be a genius."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so ace kags is my fav. he's ace and aro in this fic and he'll kind of use ace as an umbrella term because he's the kind of person that would still be a little confused about what the differences are and everything. he's a doofus and i love him.
> 
> really i think my goal for this chapter was tanaka just thinking "cute" 24/7 but in kind of a lowkey way. maybe its kind of ooc since he goes all gaga for girls, but i always imagine that thats more for the fun of having a crush, and that his romantic relationships would form more like the bonds he has with noya and the rest of the team where it's just "i think you're one of the coolest people ever and i really want you to know that you are really cool" whether he does that loudly or not.
> 
> also if you want to read more on the daisuga escapades or the tsukkiyama struggle, make sure to check out the other fics in my sweet like series. my plan is to keep them stand alone fics, but to definitely try to weave them together, and hopefully (if my brain is good enough) have a kurooken story weaving together in the back of them, with the kenma side of the relationship mostly developed in this fic, and the kuroo side in the daisuga fic. but we'll see how well that actually works out.
> 
> anyway, I hope you like it! comments are always appreciated because i really want to make this fic the best it can be for all my fellow tanahina lovers.


End file.
